The Flagellation; (reverse) The Madonna of Mercy

Painting, processional banner • Paintings

Created in 1545 during the Renaissance period, this work belongs firmly within the religion & mythology tradition. Girolamo Romanino worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Executed in Distemper and oil(?) on canvas, measuring 70 7/8 x 47 1/2 in. (180 x 120.7 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Girolamo Romanino builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. What looks like straightforward narrative is layered with typology: episodes chosen and staged to rhyme with older stories the original audience already knew.

Today the painting is held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it remains a touchstone for understanding Girolamo Romanino's contribution to Western art. It has been studied, copied, restored, and argued over for centuries — proof that great paintings keep generating new readings long after their creators have gone.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”